Honorable Mention: International Architecture Awards 2022
One Crown Place | London, United Kingdom | 2021

Architects: Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates PC.
Lead Architect: John Bushell
General Contractor: Mace Group Ltd.
Client: Private
Photographers: Hufton+Crow

One Crown Place comprises two residential towers above a six-storey office podium with retail units at the ground floor. Located in a Conservation Area, the building takes inspiration from the scale, proportion and materiality of surrounding warehouses. The triangular massing of the residential towers was studied with bespoke urban analysis scripts, to provide slender proportions from key city views, minimise local impact and create interesting residential units with optimised views out.

The inner facades address the wider cityscape, featuring bespoke artwork by Stig Evans. Inspired by Constable’s cloud paintings, screen-printed abstracted colours from local sky conditions match and contrast with the sky as the day passes, to create a kinetic experience. Textured terracotta on the external facades extends the full height of the building.

A truly mixed-use building, a common energy centre shares loads between the uses. The office podium provides open and flexible office floors uninterrupted by columns from the residential towers above, enabled by a two-storey truss that transfers the structural load of the residential towers to the edges of the building.

Residential amenities and a residents’ terrace are located on the 7th floor, where the exposed truss becomes a striking feature. The building is part of the wider One Crown Place development which revives an urban block with a complex mix of old and new. A boutique hotel (opening 2022) is located in a restored Georgian terrace on Sun Street, and a 1970’s office building will be converted into affordable workplace.

The varied frontages and massing form multiple addresses, with front doors on all sides of the block and an intimate central courtyard. A mix of old and new, it is both a unified architectural expression and a collection of individual elements with their own sense of identity – articulated as part of a dynamic and responsive composition.